The Comforts of Home
by spacEnigma83
Summary: Let's take a trip back in time to season one. I'd like to revisit an old episode or at least flashback to it for a new story. This is an Emma "thinking back" one-shot story. It might be good. Who knows? It's not fluffy at all... but we are all going through some O.U.A.T. withdrawals are we not and something is better than nothing. :)


****I forgot to mention in the summary that the episode I'm going back to is "True North" but I'm sure you could have figured it out from the start. :)****

**The Comforts of Home**

"I wonder what that would be like." Emma says as she sits up in Mary Margaret's bed staring off in thought as the brunette continues to fold the laundry. That is the sort of thing that happens in a normal home, people clean and fold their laundry. Somehow this simple everyday task made Emma feel comforted.

Emma had just come home from quite the eventful evening. Michael Tillman, a local mechanic, had just found out that he was the father of two grown twelve year old twins. Emma herself had been the bearer of this shocking news and he had not been very receptive to it... at first.

Regina had been so adamant in wanting to get these children out of town and in to Boston's foster care system. The idea of all of this did not sit well with Emma who had grown up in the system herself only to finally run away from it in the end. She wanted this man to know he had children with the hopes that he would realize they belonged with him to spare them the life she knew all too well.

Growing up an orphan, family and home were foreign words to her, but here she was doing everything within her power to keep this little family together if not for her own mental health but for the benefit of those children.

"Maybe you'll find out. You can't give up." Mary Margaret suggests to Emma ever hopeful and upbeat as she stacks her folded clothes beside her to get to work on a new stack.

"I don't know. I kind of think giving up might be the best plan. I think I need to let go." Emma explains in exhaustion though she doesn't sound as sure as she thinks she does, leaving plenty of room to be talked out of it.

"No you don't." Mary Margaret is quick to say. Giving up was not in her repertoire and if Emma was not holding out hope here she was more than willing to do that for her.

"Really? If they wanted to know me they wouldn't make it so hard to look." Emma says in her own defense. It was a logical argument after all. If her long lost parents truly wanted her they might have reached out themselves then again she didn't particularly seek Henry out.

"Maybe… but maybe there's other reasons. Maybe there is an explanation." Mary Margaret offers assuredly. She didn't want to give Emma the chance to throw in the towel just yet, not after she fought so hard today and managed to succeed in getting these twins home with their birth father.

"If there is it's something crazy… something even crazier than Henry's theory." She proposes and clearly this is her attempt to throw the other woman a bone and clearly it works.

"Yeah? What's Henry's theory?" She manages to ask in an impossibly enthusiastic way.

"Well… that my parents… put me in a magical wardrobe and sent me to this world to save them." Emma says but her words lack the sarcasm that should accompany the quirky expression on her face.

"Aw." Mary Margaret gushes. "And who does he think they are?" She asks with an endearing smile.

"Well… for one…" She starts to say and she can't help the slight tilt of her head as if debating with herself on whether or not she should divulge this information. She wanted to keep this as casual a conversation as possible, not make her new roommate uncomfortable with it. "You." She says simply and then she waits. She sees the quick glimpse of confusion on the other woman's face but it's soon replaced by a hesitant smile.

"Me?" She asks with a raise of her brow not certain if she should feel moved or completely thrown off by this idea.

"Well… Snow White." Emma offers in clarification trying not to let her inner child break through. In that moment she realizes she might have just confessed to something she might very well wish to be true. She was nearly holding her breath as she could hear the thump of her heart beating in her ears. Why did she think this was something that was okay to share? _'Oh great going Swan, you probably freaked her out now.'_ She mentally berates.

"Snow White… has a kid." Mary Margaret says gasping in realization.

Just to clarify that none of this was her idea but Henry's she says, "Apparently that book you gave him… not exactly the stories in the most traditional sense." Then she thinks now is a good time to distance herself from this now tender subject. Maybe it was too much after all. Even if the woman seemed to still think it whimsy it was causing a stirring of something that Emma simply was not ready to deal with.

"I have a kid." Mary Margaret suggests thoughtfully. She misses the way Emma's body tenses with those words. Yes she most definitely needed to stop talking about Henry's fantastical ideas. "You'd think I'd remember that." She offers in voice that is oddly tinged with something akin to regret.

"Yeah, you'd think." Emma suggests in a sarcastic mutter as she quickly averts her eyes.

"You do kind of have my chin." The brunette says with a playful raise of her brows. At least it made things bearable if the woman does not give weight to these fantasy theories of an imaginative child.

Even if Mary Margaret is only playing along with the idea the stirrings Emma is fighting off, those stirrings of longing and hope, are making her completely uncomfortable. As is her method of coping she decides it's time to leave the room before some sort of deep personal conversation starts happening. She gets up from the bed. "I think I need to go get some air." She offers as an excuse. She moves to leave the room grabbing her file from the counter and her car keys. "I'm going to go think." She says once more in a way she hopes will let the other woman know that she has every intention of coming back to the apartment.

After that Emma spent some time alone in her bug reading her personal file that she had reread dozens of times in the past few weeks alone trying to come up with an answer as to why it was that she could find those twins father and not even manage to come up with names for her own parents.

Henry came around that evening with some pumpkin pie and her thoughts went to the boy's "fairytale parent" theory. Sure it was nice to think on. It was nice to indulge in a moment of fantasy to think that perhaps Mary Margaret was in fact Snow White and Snow White was her mother. That meant that if she was really Snow White then David Nolan in fact was her Prince Charming and was therefore Emma's father as well. Was it sad that she would rather hold out hope for that then think on some deadbeat parents lurking around in the real world she knew? There was just no way Henry was right about any of that... right?

_"Well Henry... you are just too smart for your own good aren't you?"_ She thinks to herself as she stands on the deck of the Jolly Roger now, staring off in to the distance hoping to spot the infamous islands that put together Neverland. She notices Regina off on her own. She sees Gold and Hook managing to stand near each other and not attempt to strangle each other. She takes a moment to appreciate all of this for what it really is… a bunch of fairytale characters on a freaking pirate ship headed for Neverland, and among those fairytale characters were Snow White and Prince Charming.

"Mom and Dad…" She whisper to herself as she looks over at them, not wanting to call attention to herself, but simply allowing those terms of endearment to spill forth from her lips. She smiles now as she watches the two of them more carefully. They stand at the bow of the ship looking out in to the distance, no doubt just as worried for Henry's safety as everyone else currently is.

David keeps a protective arm around Mary Margaret and they remain that way. They remain silent yet their body language speaks volumes, giving off an air of comfort much like Mary Margaret folding the laundry back in the apartment or David setting out bowls of cereal in the morning. That was comfort and comfort was home.

_"So I'm the product of their True Love." _Emma thinks to herself. She can't help but smile at the sight of them. Of course she was afraid for Henry and yes she was worried about what lay in store for them in Neverland but right now at this very moment she's simply happy to know that there is a family here for her. She wasn't going to be facing any of those obstacles alone... not anymore. She may not believe in Happy Endings and if she never gets one of those at the very least this is definitely a start in the right direction for a life with some "Happy Moments".

****So yeah... I don't have anything else to add to this but every time I put a "THE END" in a story I always add a chapter after it making myself look a fool... so I don't do that anymore :)**

**Just assume that I am in fact done with this. I'd like a review if you would be so inclined... if not thanks for reading anyway and have a great day!****


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